What is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12?

1 · MindWhere it comes from

The story, as the Church tells it: in December 1531, Juan Diego, an Indigenous man whose Nahuatl name was Cuauhtlatoatzin, was walking near Tepeyac Hill, outside today’s Mexico City. Mary appeared to him and spoke in Nahuatl, his own language. She asked for a church to be built there. The bishop wanted a sign.

On the morning of December 12, she told Juan Diego to gather roses from a hilltop where normally only cactus and scrub grew. He carried them to the bishop in his tilma, a cloak. When he opened it, the roses fell out and her image was on the cloth. Vatican News describes the image as a mestiza woman, dressed like an Indigenous woman. The tilma hangs in the Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City, which local officials said drew about 12.8 million visitors around the feast in 2025.

Pope John Paul II declared Juan Diego a saint in 2002, calling him the first Indigenous saint of the Americas. Popes have also named Our Lady of Guadalupe Patroness of Latin America (1910) and, in 1999, Patroness of all America, which includes the United States. She is also the patroness of the Diocese of Phoenix.

In Arizona and across the country, the day often looks like this:

• Mañanitas: a serenade before sunrise, often with mariachi, sung to her like a birthday song.
• Mass and processions, with her image carried through the streets and decorated with red roses.
• Matachines and other dancers in feathered and beaded costumes.
• Food after, such as tamales, pan dulce and hot chocolate.

In the U.S., December 12 is a feast day but not a holy day of obligation, meaning Catholics aren’t required to attend Mass. In Mexico, it is. When December 12 lands on a Sunday of Advent, as it does in 2027, the Sunday Mass is for Advent, so check your parish’s schedule.

What each tradition or community says